Draft minutes Kilfinan Community Council meeting

28th October 2025 18.00 hrs Kames Hall

1. Present and apologies
   Community Councillors, Ed Pybus, Nicola Greenall, Catriona renfrew, John Butcher, John MacColl, Robin Webster and Vicky Wince.
   Members of the public, Iain, David, Sophy and Michaela.
2. Minutes of September 2025 meeting. Draft minutes circulated, agreed.
3. Declarations of interest. Robin Trustee of Glenan Wood, Nicola, employee of ABCAN, Ed partner employee of ABCAN.
4. Matters arising:
   – Bins update on request to Council. CR request has gone to Councillor Sinclair to intervene as no response from council officers. In discussion issues with bins at Tide and Thyme and Blairs highlighted.
   – Broadband update. CR has sent details of all KCC postcodes to government connectivity team to ask for analysis for whole area of connection times lines.
   – Rally economic analysis. Councillor Sinclair had offered to follow up at August meeting, no response from him as yet.
   – Collaboration with TDDT. EP gets papers and agenda, he will share with secretary so these can be circulated for KCC meetings. EP also to meet Chair of TDDT.
   – Actions from September habitat regeneration discussion
   • Follow up to North Kilfinan burn biodiversity damage, CR to chase up contact information for KCC to lobby.
   • EP setting up forestry plan sub group.
   • EP contacted Nathan Berrie at Nature Scot to ask that KCC is added to Cowal Deer Management group. Agreed that JB should represent KCC on the group.
   • Iain Dow is going to raise KCC inclusion in the larder management group with the current members.
5. Emergency Planning and community resilience: update from development session. EP had circulated notes of the 4th October meeting which brought together a wide range ofn interested people and organisations and generated a comprehensive range of issues and ideas which need to be taken forward. These had gone to the group which had gathered for the workshop for comment and thoughts on next steps. There were a range of views on how to progress, CR felt there were urgent priorities to start planning hubs in each community and resolve the issues with the SAS not coordinating with available local emergency responses. EP was keen to continue to engage with the workshop participants. Agreed that views on next steps need to be fed into the process to enable a coherent agreed way forward to be agreed.
6. Planning for November Roads session. A number of issues emerged from the discussion, including from members of the public present. These included, pavements, ditches, speed limits and traffic calming, overgrown roads, flooding, repairs and resurfacing. Also issues from the LPP process, including cycling and pedestrian routes. The long term planning, and resilience of the road networks in the face of climate change was raised. CR to confirm with AB and C which officer is attending and to draft a proposed flier for comment and thereafter wide circulation, including Facebook with comments allowed.
7. Local Place Plan Draft circulated and welcomed by the meeting, the ABCAN efforts on community engagement have brought forward lots of issues and ideas which can be promoted for the AB and C local plan and through a range of other channels. Agreed the draft was in shape for a final round of community consultation and that the KCC January 2026 will focus on reviewing a final draft before submission to AB and C. There is then a 28 day consultation period with neighbouring community councils and local councillors before the plan is submitted to ABC.
8. Rally update and correspondence paper noted, CR to draft response to Motorsport UK a and circulate for comment. Agreed we should seek a meeting with A and BC officers to seek support for our route proposals as no response had been received from Mull Car Club. Also noted that Colglen continue to object to multiple closures on the same routes in their area. Agreed CR to follow up question to Hugh O’Neill about pedestrian access before the next meeting.
9. Meetings
10. Planning applications CT to report in future.
11. Charges for traffic orders. Agreed KCC will respond per TDDT response, no charges for small local charities and community organisations.
12. AOCB
    Co-option co-option application be circulated 14 days before the next meeting EP.
    Repowering of Strachur windfarm: Agreed KCC should ask for share of the community benefits. EP.
    Berryburn road. Correspondence received from residents raising concerns that road was unadopted by Council to ACHA without due process and ACHA are now proposing charges. Sophy described the situation in more detail and agreed to keep KCC informed as we may be able to help at a later point. Suggested CAB maybe a source of free advice.
    Children’s issues Micheala was attending to describe growing concerns about the lack of services and facilities for children causing families to leave the area. Agreed that there are serious issues to address, particularly around childcare for younger children. KCC need to support discussions with early years team at A and B council and initiate further action through the follow up the local place plan engagement. Michaela will update KCC after meeting with Jenni Minto MSP. Agreed that EP will respond to depopulation survey for KCC.
13. Future meeting dates all Kames Hall
    25/11 15.00 Transport session
    Meeting dates for 2026 agreed times for later dates to be confirmed.
    27th January 18.00
    24th February 15.00
    31st March
    28th April
    26th May
    30th June and AGM